GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
David Foster on working with Jake Zyrus, being married to Katherine McPhee, and his staying power
Los Angeles — David Foster, also known as “The Hit Man,” is the man behind the success of such artists as Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Ringo Starr, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Andrea Bocelli and our very own Jake Zyrus.
The multi-awarded composer-arranger-musician-record producer who media mogul Oprah Winfrey called up to help the artist formerly known as Charice back then, talked to us recently about the Filipino singer, how he discovers new talents, where he gets his energy now at 70, fatherhood and his life with his wife, former “American Idol” runner-up Katherine McPhee, 36.
David also has a new documentary titled “Off the Record.”
You are a big supporter of upcoming talents like Filipino singer Jake Zyrus when he was just starting. What do you look for in a singer? How was it working with Jake formerly known as Charice?
Well, I like to say that the artists find me. I don't find them. I don't go actively looking although I've joked to Josh Groban and to Michael Bublé both. I said, 'you know, I'm really looking for the new Michael Bublé and the real Josh Groban. I'd love to find them but they just don't exist.'
But joking aside, artists find me. Charice basically found me through the help of my manager Mark Johnston and we took that – we took Charice as far as we could go.
I love playing in the Philippines. It's just amazing. For those of you watching when you go to the Philippines and perform your songs, everybody in the audience, every single person sings every word of every song. It's really quite amazing so bravo.
But, you know, Charice ran into some personal problems and I think Jake is a much happier person than Charice was, but we were caught in the middle of that and even though it was only 10 years ago, it really threw everybody off course.
I think in 2020, we would have been able to handle it a lot differently. But as it turns out, Charice is now Jake and he's happy and, of course, I wish him nothing but the greatest success.
But as far as finding another artist like Bublé or Celine or whatever you know, they find me and I think it's a gift because when you hear a great singer and if they want to work with you I think that's really amazing. I get lucky.
Where do you get your energy and inspiration? You have been in the industry for so long.
I must say that my energy is sort of fading a little bit now that I have turned 70. I can’t run around the block the way I used to. But there’s just so much to do. There’s so much music to make and so little time to do it. And I’ve said this before, but I wake up some mornings and feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. I really mean that. Maybe you feel the same way that you haven’t written the great story yet.
I know that I have written a lot of great stories and people say I’m great, and I know that they are published all around the world, but I haven’t written that story yet. Sometimes I feel like I just haven’t accomplished anything.
And then there are other days when I feel pretty good, I mean this where I stare at, the piano, and they haven’t been here for my whole life, but for the last couple of years they have been on the piano. And you can look at that two ways. It’s either motivating, or depressing, because you have got to go like wow, I want more of those things, and how do I get them? So I have a nice balance of thinking that I am useless and thinking that I am really the greatest thing ever.
How is your life with Katherine McPhee?
Marrying Katherine was a much unexpected thing for both of us and we don't talk about it much. But in any marriage there's a ton of things that can bring you down and ruin your marriage from geography to finances to stepchildren to infidelity to a bunch of stuff and certainly a big age difference is one of them.
But if everything else is good, I think that the age difference is something that you can easily navigate and we have so far which is great. Great news and she's very mature. She's an old soul and I know it sounds cliché but we learn from each other. It's not just one sided.
Who would you have liked to have worked with?
I always said Sting and Stevie Wonder. I got to work with Stevie Wonder; we have an unfinished album that we’ve been working on for a decade, 14 songs. And I don’t know if it’ll ever come out or not. So that was a check.
And then Sting. I’m friends with Sting and I’ve said it in probably a hundred interviews, and he just doesn’t need me. But I just love his music. I love his whole approach to everything that he does, even if they’re not all great songs that he writes. But even the ones that aren’t great, there’s just something about the way he does it that’s so magical for me. So maybe if he hears about this maybe. It’s 101 times I’ve said it.
How do you navigate fatherhood and career?
I think you’ll see in the documentary that I didn’t navigate it as well as I could have, and I talk in detail about it. I love the saying you’re only as happy as your saddest child. And if you have children, you know what I’m talking about.
So you’re only as happy as your saddest child and when you have four daughters and then a fifth daughter who came along a lot later, it’s hard. It’s really hard because somebody is always unhappy either with you or the choice you made or your life or whatever. So I could have done a lot better in navigating.
I put career first and I think a lot of men and women do that and then the children at some point pay for that. And it’s easy to say to your kids, hey, you’re a grown woman now, just get on with it. But if there are some scars from childhood they just sometimes can’t get on with it.
And my children are very well adjusted but they’ve been through a lot with me. I mean a lot. As you probably know the history of my marriages and that left some marks, but we worked through it. I just had a long talk with one of my daughters yesterday about this very subject. So at least I’m open to trying to make it better every day. — LA, GMA News
